Consumer Reports Holiday Poll: Black Friday May Be Losing Its Charm

Arthur Allen | (TNS) KFF Health News When doctors began using the drug sotorasib in 2021 with high expectations for its innovative approach to attacking lung cancer, retired medical technician Don Crosslin was an early beneficiary. Crosslin started the drug that July. His tumors shrank, then stabilized. But while the drug has helped keep him alive, its side effects have gradually narrowed the confines of his life, said Crosslin, 76, who lives in Ocala, Florida: “My appetite has been minimal.

David Matthews | New York Daily News Stormy Daniels blasted Donald Trump on social media Thursday night, just a few hours after she finished testifying against the former president in his Manhattan hush-money trial. “Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh…wait. Nevermind,” she wrote in a post on X — a taunting reference to Trump not testifying in the case and using his own social media accounts to rail against the proceedings. The zinger came after Trump’s lawyers unsuccessfully requested a mistrial based on Daniels’ testimony. If Trump were to testify, he would open himself up to cross-examination by prosecutors. Earlier in the day, Daniels pushed back during a tense, hour-long cross-examination by Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles. Related Articles National News | Strong solar storm could disrupt communications and produce northern lights in US National News | Prosecutors focus on phone records in Trump’s hush money trial as Michael Cohen’s testimony awaits National News | The Biden-Netanyahu relationship is strained like never before.

Jessie Hellmann | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call WASHINGTON — Six months after the launch of the Biden administration’s “birthing friendly” designation for hospitals, advocates are questioning the next steps for the tool aimed at incentivizing better care for patients. Beginning last fall, hospitals that achieved the designation received an icon on Care Compare, a federal website aimed at helping consumers pick health care providers. But it’s not difficult for hospitals to receive the designation, with 2,225 — that is, most eligible hospitals — having received it as of April. Of the nearly 1,000 acute care hospitals that didn’t get the designation, more than 800 said they didn’t provide delivery or labor care. And only 135 didn’t get the designation because they didn’t meet the requirements of participating in a statewide or national perinatal quality improvement collaborative program. What’s more, many of the hospitals that have received the designation perform cesarean sections above the recommended levels, which could indicate overuse of the procedure.

A new family of COVID variants nicknamed “FLiRT” is spreading across the country, as vaccination rates nationwide remain concerningly low for some public health experts. While symptoms and severity seem to be about the same as previous COVID strains, the new FLiRT variants appear to be more transmissible, said infectious disease expert Dr.

Tim Henderson | Stateline.org (TNS) Black homeowners’ property values are on the rise across the country, with some of the biggest upswings in Midwestern and Southern states. The boon to Black homeowners, after decades of lagging property values, could help them close a racial wealth gap that has kept the American dream out of reach. Home values increased on average 84% in majority-Black ZIP codes between 2016 and 2023, outpacing growth in white ZIP codes, where values grew 69%, according to a Stateline analysis of federal housing and census data. A hot market during the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying housing shortage, and new state and federal efforts to fight appraisal bias may finally be moving Black homeowners a bit toward property value parity. Morgan Williams, an attorney for the National Fair Housing Alliance, an advocacy group, cautioned that the push for more fair housing appraisals remains in the early stages.

U. S. Sen. Marco Rubio once called Donald Trump a “con artist” too “dangerous” and “erratic” to be entrusted with nuclear codes. But in a few months, Rubio could be calling Trump something else: his running mate. The Florida Republican was one of a few people on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist who attended a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, along with fellow GOP senators J.